My Top 10 Shows of 2024

please do not yell at me

I don’t even know why I’m typing an introduction. You’re already scrolling down to see what’s on the list. You probably didn’t even make it to this sentence. I could type anything I want here and you would never know. I could confess to a crime. I could come right out and type “I am going to steal the Liberty Bell on Wednesday” and no one would say a word to me when I show up and lurk around. This is the power of list season.

Anyway, as always, a few notes before we get to the honorees:

— This is my list, made up of shows I watched and enjoyed. It’s not “the best shows of 2024” or anything definitive like that. It’s just my top shows. Your list might look different. That’s okay.

— It was a weird year for shows I loved all the way through right up until endings that I kind of hated. The Penguin was way more fun than I expected it to be and Cristin Milioti gave maybe my favorite performance of the year but I just really did not like the finale at all. Bad Monkey was a laid-back blast but the ending felt so rushed that it ruined the vibe for me. The Sticky was a show made in a laboratory specifically for me — Margo Martindale and some idiots steal maple syrup from a corrupt goon — but it left so much unsettled that it proved frustrating, which bummed me out. Like I said, weird.

— Lots of honorable mentions. The English Teacher was a blast. Elsbeth is a fun little stress-free bedtime watch. 9-1-1 let Angela Bassett land an airplane on the freeway during a bee-nado. There were also a bunch of shows I probably should have watched but didn’t, like Somebody Somewhere and Ripley and Fantasmas. These are always imperfect exercises.

Okay, here we go. And if you hear that somebody stole the Liberty Bell this week, just know that it wasn’t me and no one can prove it.

10. Shrinking/What We Do in the Shadows

Notes…

• There is, I suspect, a very good chance that these shows would end up much higher on my list if I were writing it, say, a month from now when they’ve both wrapped up their promising seasons, but I can’t in good faith credit them too much for a great unfinished season of television when I just mentioned in the intro that at least three shows ended up getting bumped out of the top 10 because I disliked their endings

• I am also lumping them together because it is very funny to me to combine a show about finding a way to live and have fun through grief with a wacky show about vampires who are often horny

• I would love to see a crossover episode where Derek hangs out with Nandor and Laszlo has a therapy session with Harrison Ford’s character

Good shows.

9. Presumed Innocent

Notes…

• I am still not exactly sure if this show was “good” but I do know I had a lot of fun watching it and that counts for something

• I love a show where Jake Gyllenhaal really Just Goes For It

• Peter Sargaard got so much mileage out of that smirk he does and I could not possibly be more proud of him

Ruth Negga is a good actress.

8. Fargo

Notes…

• Maybe not the best season of Fargo but definitely one that gave us Juno Temple going Kevin McAllister on some goons and a menacing Jon Hamm

• “John Sasquatch”

• Jennifer Jason Leigh deserves an award in a category I have just invented called Most Accent in a Drama

Let’s do it all again soon.

7. Everybody’s in LA

Notes…

• I loved this chaotic little mess of a pop-up talk show

• Richard Kind is a treasure and should be treated as such

• The energy in this screencap is implied in everything I have ever done

Moving on.

6. Doctor Odyssey

Notes…

• It’s not a particularly great show and it can’t possibly sustain the pace it sprinted out of the gates with but I can’t deny that it’s been a blast to watch everything spiral into anarchy every week

• I still choose to believe that Don Johnson’s ship captain here is just his Miami Vice character in retirement and/or witness protection

• I still can’t believe how fast they got to “a passenger on the cruise broke his penis”

Good for Joshua Jackson.

5. Slow Horses

Notes…

• A terrific show about bumbling spies that keeps delivering every season

• Gary Oldman remains the best farter on television

• I love that GIF up there a lot

River is a sweet boy.

4. Mr. and Mrs. Smith

Notes…

• This show was so much better than it had any right to be

• Donald Glover remains very good at making television

• Maya Erskine should be a much bigger star

Let’s work on that last one.

3. Extraordinary

Notes…

• Just a delightfully silly little show that uses superpowers (or a lack thereof) as a way to examine loss and belonging and the value of a found family in a way I’ve never seen before

• Jizzlord is maybe my favorite character on television

• That is a fun sentence to type knowing some of you will be attempting to process it without context

Please watch this one.

2. Shogun

Notes…

• Really just everything television can be when you shove talent and good source material and a pile of money into a room and let everyone cook

• I would like to see Anna Sawai as a villain in a season of Fargo

• I suppose it has nothing to do with the quality of the show itself but I do appreciate that it gave us a really fun meme format to play around with for a while

Counts for something.

1. A Man on the Inside

Notes…

• Warm and funny and sad and goofy and just everything you could expect from a show where Mike Schur and Ted Danson are given room to operate

• I watched this show with my parents and it was a wonderful way to look at otherwise awkward topics — aging, evolving parent-child relationships, finding a sense of purpose in a new chapter of life — through a lens that also involved stolen jewels and amateur spycraft

• I really, really hope we get a few more seasons of this one

Okay, that’s my list. Let’s do this again next year.